Family members of imprisoned U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae have taken to the airwaves for the first time since his arrest six months ago in Rajin, North Korea, with his sister telling CNN that the Christian tour operator is not a spy.

Bae, an ethnic Korean and naturalized U.S. citizen, was sentenced this week to 15 years in a North Korean labor camp for alleged acts deemed threatening to the government. He was arrested Nov. 3, 2012, while in Rason City (formerly Rajin) reportedly while leading a tour with five Europeans. The government-run Korean Central News Agency, which announced the 15-year sentence, had revealed over the weekend that Bae was charged with "committing crimes aimed at toppling the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with hostility towards it," according to The Independent....